by Connor Mccoy
“When you’ve been on canned oatmeal for a while, it probably messes you up. I used to be able to go to the grocery and get everything I wanted.” She patted her stomach. “Guess I have to get used to different foods.”
Conrad nodded. “Probably so. Do you need something to drink?”
“I’d love that. Thank you.”
Conrad led Carla to the kitchen and gave her a fresh glass of water. He observed her carefully. Something about the way she was acting, especially the vomiting, eerily reminded him of Sarah. It was the week before Sarah took a pregnancy test and learned she was going to have Liam.
She’s got the signs, Conrad thought. The fact that she came out of Liam’s room suggested these two were more than friends.
“Mister Conrad?” Carla asked, “I want to ask you something.”
“Sounds like you just did.” Conrad smiled. “What’s on your mind?”
“Liam says you’re a prepper.” Carla awkwardly smiled. “It’s funny. I thought that meant you went to a prep school.”
Conrad laughed. “Oh Lord. I think my father would have disowned me if I had stepped foot in a hoity-toity place like that.”
“Did you know that all this was going to happen?” she asked.
Conrad let out a loud huff. Again, someone was asking him that question. Perhaps in his gut, he did know. How else can someone explain his actions?
Finally, he replied to Carla in the best way he could. “I wouldn’t say I knew. I felt, especially after Liam’s mother divorced me, that I should be able to survive on my own. Perhaps I didn’t want to rely on anyone or anything again. But I guess I felt that someday, something was going to rock our society to its core. It could be anything, a nuclear war, terrorists hitting our electrical grid, a giant earthquake. I read up on all the calamities to watch out for. A solar storm was definitely in the cards. I wish I was wrong. I wish I did make a fool of myself with all this.”
Carla folded her arms. “Well, I do think this is a nice place.” She chuckled. “It’s almost like out of a storybook.” She looked out the window, a bit wistfully. “Even the sky at night looks so wonderful. I’ve never seen so many stars before.”
“When you’re living in the city, the street lights tend to block out some of the starlight. It’s called light pollution. When you’re out here, you can definitely tell the difference at night,” Conrad said.
The pair exchanged more small talk before Carla elected to go back to bed. Conrad followed her toward Liam’s bedroom door. “He was excited to come here,” Carla said. “He said you were the toughest man he knew.”
Conrad braced himself on the wall. That sentence meant the most of anything he had heard from Liam or Carla today. So, his son truly didn’t buy into Sarah’s lies about him.
“Thanks for telling me,” Conrad said, “That means everything to me.”
Carla gave him a hug. After withdrawing, she opened the door to Liam’s room and stepped inside.
Chapter Six
Conrad wheeled his bicycle out toward the front of his homestead. He was dressed in a warm buttoned shirt over a T-shirt, with jeans on over thermal underwear and boots that were comfortable enough for sudden movements and running.
He glanced at the garage beside the homestead. His old truck had served him well over the years. Conrad had made sure it was not dependent on microprocessors to control it, and that his garage was fortified with metal shielding. But while he was sure he had protected his vehicle enough from an EMP event, he still had the problem of fuel. He had stored up gallons of fuel for an emergency, but even with as much as he had packed away, he could not be sure he could drive the truck all the way to Redmond, explore it adequately enough, and get back without running out. With gas stations shut down, Conrad had only the gasoline he had stored.
Additionally, he had to consider that driving around in a working truck would make him a big target. A few of the radio users he had listened to mentioned working cars and trucks being mobbed. And while riding a bike would leave them exposed, it also would let them dart in and out of places more easily, plus there was no running engine to alert people with bad intentions.
Liam and Carla’s bicycles already were parked in front of Conrad’s home, with Liam’s backpack lying near the porch steps. Carla waited there while Liam brought out Carla’s backpack from inside the house.
Carla smiled. “Well, thank you, kind sir, but I could have brought it out myself.”
Liam dropped the pack on the ground. “You seemed a little off this morning.”
“Well, I’m fine now.” Carla wrapped her arms around Liam’s neck and pulled him closer. “Thanks.”
Liam smiled, but it was clear something was on his mind. Conrad could tell.
After Carla released him, Liam strolled over to his father. “Dad,” he said, “I need to tell you something.”
Conrad walked a little closer to his son. Liam lowered his voice. “It’s something I should have said earlier, but we’re running at top speed here. Carla and I are more than just good friends. In fact, you could say Carla’s part of the family now.”
Conrad nodded. “She’s on the nest.”
Liam frowned. “How’d you know?”
“Had a slight hunch. She was up last night with an upset tummy. Had flashbacks of your mother before we learned she was having you.”
Liam nodded. “Yeah.”
Conrad leaned closer. “Look, I’m not going to bite your head off here. It’s great that you’ve found a lady. But do you think she should be going with us?”
Liam exhaled loudly. “Carla is, well, let’s just say she’s full of surprises. In fact, she even saved my life when things were getting bad. I can’t do this without her.”
“Full of surprises, huh?” Conrad glanced at Carla. He almost said, Yeah, your mom was sure full of surprises, but he caught his tongue. He wasn’t going to poison the well with his own bad memories of his former love. Carla deserved the benefit of the doubt.
The first hour since Conrad, Liam, and Carla departed didn’t seem unusual. However, as the hours passed and their journey had taken Conrad farther than he had gone from the homestead since the solar storm, a tinge of uneasiness hit his gut. Not that he was scared. He was prepared to face whatever the world had to throw at him. He just knew that things were about to take a dangerous turn.
At Conrad’s insistence, they took a state road. The interstate would be a big mistake. It would be piled up with abandoned cars that suddenly shut down from the solar storm. The lanes would be an utter mess, almost impassable. Plus, with no one to collect the bodies, the remains of any motorists killed in the crashes would stay there, decay, and collect an enormous amount of pestilence and disease.
Not that the state road was free of abandoned vehicles. They hadn’t been twenty minutes on their journey when they passed an SUV that had swerved off into the grass. Ten minutes later, they drove by a brown, four-door car. The doors were wide open, with no signs of bodies. Evidently these folks were lucky. The crash hadn’t killed them. Of course, the big question was whether they made it to a town.
Still, to their good fortune, there was always a lane open. Maneuvering around a derelict vehicle was simple. They didn’t have to worry about stopping, except when a brief break from pedaling was needed.
As the day progressed shortly past noon, the number of abandoned cars started to increase. Conrad then spotted an old, dented sign off to the right: Wynwood 20 Miles.
Wynwood. Conrad had been there several times over the past few years. For a long time, it was nothing more than a tiny place on the map. Years ago, there was a mineral mine out this way, and Wynwood was established as a place for miners to bunk out. Then, as Redmond built up and the mine shut down, more residents moved up to Wynwood, turning a small mining town into a small suburb.
Might be just what we need, Conrad thought. The big cities would be overrun with warring gangs and violent factions competing for power, plus the amount of dead bodies would be enor
mous. God knows how much disease they could run into. That didn’t count the mobs of desperate people looking for food or water. But a small place like Wynwood might have weathered the storm better, although it didn’t take more than a handful of agitated survivors to make trouble. Hopefully, they could find a shelter there and stay for the night.
Conrad slowed his pedaling, allowing his son and daughter-in-law to pull up closer. “All right, lovebirds, I think I got us a place to sleep for the night. Sundown’s coming in three hours, so we need to haul ass. Wynwood’s coming up. I’ll guide us a little farther, and then I’ll take us off the road.”
“Hey!” Carla suddenly pointed up a steep hill overlooking the road. “Check those out. Dogs!”
Conrad turned to their right. Indeed, three canines were looking down on them from a few feet above. His fingers clenched the handlebars a little tighter. The breakdown of society meant there was no animal control, so almost any animal out and about had to be suspected of being feral.
“Keep pedaling as you are, but get ready to speed up in a hurry,” Conrad said.
He hoped these three weren’t wolves or coyotes. Even if they weren’t, some dog breeds could hit fast speeds once they started running. A dog could reach thirty-five miles an hour in a short burst. Which was probably just enough to overtake them.
Conrad thought about his firearm. If those dogs started to chase them, he’d almost surely have to shoot them.
By now they had passed up the dogs. Now Conrad glanced behind them. Two of the dogs stood a little higher. They seemed to be leaning in their direction.
Then, one of them barked and started dashing down the hill.
Damn! Conrad thought.
“Pedal like hell!” Conrad shouted.
Though they had managed to get a little distance between them, the three dogs started closing the gap once they hit the street. They were pretty thin, obviously they hadn’t been subsisting on much out here. Their lean living, however, had made them quick and deadly. These animals had to find their food themselves. Their hunting instinct, no doubt, was well-honed.
Conrad reached down for his gun. Thanks to their shorter height compared to a person, these dogs wouldn’t be easy targets. Perhaps the sound of a gunshot would dissuade these hounds from chasing them any farther.
As he pulled his gun out of his holster, he found Liam already had drawn his. One of the canines was closing in on Carla. Liam’s hand didn’t look steady. He wasn’t used to multitasking on a bike, plus he had little experience with a gun.
Liam fired. The bullet popped the ground right in front of the nearest dog, which was enough to frighten it. The dog instead whined and stopped. The other dog passed by him.
“Liam! Pedal harder and I’ll take care of them!” Conrad then started to slow his pedaling, to let Liam and Carla pass him up.
But Liam was too spooked by the approaching dogs to listen. He fired twice in close succession. One shot seemed to hit a dog, as the canine jumped back and turned into the grass. The other sailed past the third animal, which started to slow down.
However, in the process Liam’s bike suddenly turned to the right. He was losing control. Frantically, he grabbed the bars but dropped his gun. The firearm bounced off the asphalt and disappeared into tall weeds.
“Liam!” Conrad called. His son was fast losing control and dropping speed. His bike either would flop over, or he’d have to stop, leaving him at the mercy of the pursuing canines. “Slow down, turn it back, and then speed back up!”
Panting, Liam obeyed. He got the bicycle back on the road and soon managed to get back even with Carla. Unfortunately, the dogs still were behind them, if not quite as close. Either they were getting tired, or wary of approaching after the gunshots.
“Pour it on!” Conrad called out. If they could keep the gap wide enough, the dogs soon would stop and leave.
“But Dad!” Liam called through his labored breathing. “My gun!”
“Leave it!” Conrad gritted his teeth. Losing his gun was a damn fool move, but at least Liam had avoided the dogs’ reach.
They kept pedaling as fast as they could. Eventually the dogs stopped their pursuit and were soon gone from sight.
Conrad’s party pedaled for close to an hour before turning off the road. A line of small houses appeared on the horizon. No tall buildings. They had reached Wynwood.
Wynwood wasn’t much more than a bedroom community. The streets in town were wide, and spaces between homes were sizable. As they pedaled into town, they passed by a number of homes under construction. However, the projects since had been abandoned. The construction workers obviously had more pressing matters to attend to, like trying to stay alive in a world where distribution to grocery stores had ceased. And if they had heard about what went down in Sapphire, they probably had even more reason to haul ass.
Liam was sliding his hands up and down the handlebars. The young man was nervous, perhaps angry. Conrad recognized the signs. Perhaps it was because he lost his gun back on the road. Conrad’s anger had cooled somewhat, and besides, he wasn’t in the mood to chew out his son who he only recently had gotten back together with.
“So, what’s the plan?” Liam finally asked with a touch of bitterness. “We just find a hotel and stay for the night?”
“Like hell,” Conrad replied, “You want to stay away from places where people might gather. You don’t know who’s in a hotel or a store or a school. Might be a lot of frightened people. Could be starving, too. We got to look for something that’s abandoned. Maybe a house, someplace we can secure pretty easily. If not, we’ll head off to someplace secluded and set up our tents.” Conrad gazed at a looted store on a street corner they passed. The shattered window and busted down door added to the older man’s uneasiness. “Although I’d prefer some nice brick and mortar around us.”
He led the group to Wynwood’s main street. It was the oldest and ran straight through the middle of town. Some of Wynwood’s oldest structures were to the left and right of them. “First order of business is to find a source of water,” Conrad said, “That’s the number one rule of this new world. You can afford to sleep outside. You can pass up a meal or two. But no water’s bad news.”
“Yeah.” Liam was huffing a little. They had been on the bikes for a long while now. A rest would have to come soon. “Dad, we didn’t exactly get a welcoming committee. Do you think it’s weird there’s nobody around?”
“If anyone’s around, they’re probably hunkering down. If you knew society had broken down, and you weren’t ready for it, would you be so eager to go outside?” Conrad asked.
Liam chortled. “Yeah I see what you mean.”
The road began sloping downward. The land in this area was on a slight downward incline. Also, the number of buildings decreased. Now they mostly were a collection of old shanties. “There’s a creek nearby,” Conrad said. “This part of town was legendary as a miner’s retreat, until the mine started to go dry and miners found better pickings up north in Minnesota.”
They then passed an old saloon. The sign was hanging off the frayed, cracked wooden façade. Conrad nodded in that direction. “That was Janine’s. Many a young miner became a man in there.”
Liam’s face turned red. “Thanks, Dad. I don’t think we need to know how.”
“Hey, I’m not speaking from personal experience.” Conrad laughed.
“I’ve heard a lot of stories exchanged around here. Some of my customers who would bring me stuff to fix, they had fathers who worked here. This town used to be a wild place before the nuclear families started showing up.” He gripped the handlebars a little tighter. “Of course, the wild times always can come back.”
The road turned right. Now there were even fewer structures and more open land. Conrad caught a glimpse of the creek running toward them. At the point where the road curved, there was an incline that ran toward the creek.
“Here.” Conrad cut his speed as he approached the edge of the incline. Liam and Carla follo
wed. A trail of smoke rose from down below. That was odd. There were no structures down below. Perhaps something had caught fire on the shore near the creek? Or perhaps a campfire? They might not be the only ones looking for water.
Then Conrad finally stopped. His son and daughter-in-law came to a halt near him. The trio peered down the incline and found the source of the smoke—a campfire encircled by four young men.
The quartet then looked up. Conrad instantly knew they had run into a bad bunch. The look in their eyes wasn’t calm, civilized, or in any way rational. It was an animalistic one.
Chapter Seven
There was no time to react. One of the men, the tallest of the bunch, whipped out a gun and shot it into the air. Then he leveled the firearm up the hill in Liam’s direction. Conrad had no time other than to shout before the man fired.
Horrified, Conrad turned to his son. But the young man wasn’t hurt or felled by the bullet, and he didn’t even seem to register that he had been shot at. Then Conrad saw where the bullet went. Liam’s bike was hit in the front wheel, and the impact had turned it to its side, revealing a gash in the tire. There was no way the bike was roadworthy without a new tire.
“Holy shit!” Liam jumped backward, letting the bike go.
The four men burst out laughing. One of them, seated opposite the tall man, slapped his knee. Then he rose, letting the sun shine off his bald head. They all were dressed in layered clothing, one shirt on top of another, most of them bearing holes and rips.
“That was terrible!” the bald man said, slightly slurred.
“Hey, they got a girl up there!” A tan-skinned man in a torn blue shirt pointed up hill, past Liam, to Carla. “She got some fine legs.”
“She’s not for you,” said a man with long black hair and a long-sleeved gray jacket. “We know you don’t perform.” Then he grinned, showing off dirty, ill-kept teeth.
Liam patted his side, reaching for the gun that wasn’t there anymore. “Damn. Dad, take Carla—”
